Temari flipped over on her bed and slammed her hand on the blaring alarm placed on the bedside table. She slowly picked herself up and just sat in the middle of her bed for a second. Still half asleep, she slipped on her slippers and dragged her feet over to the door. After she closed the door behind her and entered the bathroom, she noticed with sleepy eyes that Suzume was already brushing her teeth.

It was like a tornado had blown through Suzume's head overnight. The first time Temari had witnessed her little sister's bedhead, she'd actually been impressed how she could do that to her hair; some strands were even defying gravity.

The pair examined each other with the same bleary eyes and nodded a 'good morning.' They stood in front of the sink, sleepily brushing their teeth together.

At the breakfast table, Temari was now entirely awake and eating her cereal as the boys made their own breakfast. Suzume, on the other hand, was sitting in her chair, her hair still a bird's nest, and her cardigan slipping off her shoulder on one side, and in the middle of the world of the living and the world of the sleeping. Hisoka had pounced onto her lap and sat staring up at her owner in what seemed like exasperation.

Kankuro sat down across from Suzume and Gaara sat next to her, both staring at her disheveled appearance. Kankuro took out a camera from nowhere and snapped a picture of the brown haired girl. Temari went to the kitchen to place her empty bowl in the sink while Gaara flattened out Suzume's hair. The blond came back and placed a new bowl of cereal in front of her sister while Kankuro fixed the little brunette's cardigan.

Temari and Kankuro sat down in their places once again, the blond lowering a mug of coffee onto the table in front of her.

"Good morning, Suzume," they all greeted simultaneously.

Suzume lurched out of her daze and she snapped her head around wildly. When she gathered where she was, she looked at each of the shinobi with wide eyes.

"G-good morning!" she said, flustered. She hesitated. "...gomenasai..."

There was a silence before Temari and Kankuro burst out laughing and Gaara was covering his smiling mouth underneath his hand, his shoulders shaking as he held back his laughter. Suzume's cheeks turned bright red as she lowered her head in embarrassment, the cat patting her face with a paw, trying to be reassuring.

That was how the morning started off.

Gaara had been the only one who had work that day and Suzume was vacuuming the entire house. Kankuro was finishing some reports in his room and Temari was out buying groceries.

Suzume struggled with the large cleaning device, climbing the stairs up to the fourth story with strenuous breaths. Once she got to the top, she heaved a relieved sigh and started up the cordless vacuum. After the hallway and the other five rooms, she opened the door to Gaara's room and entered.

She looked around in interest at her brother's room. It was an orderly room, almost like nobody was living in it. The window was open, letting in the warm desert breeze that made the white curtain flutter. The bed looked cold and unslept in, the desk had papers stacked in neat piles, and books and folders were stored in the single towering bookshelf that had been shoved to the side. Then, living in this almost dead room, were pots of cacti. A squirt bottle was next to the row of plants and they were a bit cramped on top of Gaara's windowsill. Suzume turned off the vacuum and went to close the window to keep even more grains of sand from making their entrance into the house.

Suzume heard a footstep and rotated around to see Gaara in the doorway.

"Hello, Suzume," he said as he went over to his desk. "I just came to get something I forgot."

Suzume stared at him as he opened a drawer and pulled out a blue file. Gaara pushed the drawer back in as he flipped through the papers in the file before seeming to be satisfied with the contents and tucking it under his arm. He noticed Suzume staring at him and looked over.

"I tried to grow flowers," he said, referring to how she was standing next to the cacti. "But they die too quickly. Cactuses are harder to kill."

With that, he left the room.

Suzume stared after him. Her gaze then landed on the plants and then shifted over to look out the window. She spotted something, before hefting the vacuum and rushing out.

. . .

Suzume had the umbrella over her head as she examined the structure. She reached out and opened the glass door just to have some of the dusty glasswork to shatter to the ground she pulled out. She heard more sounds of tinkling glass as it fell while she stood in the doorway. The young girl took a step forward and the crystal crunched underfoot.

The ceiling wasn't very high and the room wasn't that spacious, the smell of fertilizer filled her nose, and shards of pottery mingled between the glass and sand. The roof had many holes and the windows were more than broken. The only part of it that wasn't falling apart were the lower part of the walls that were made of red brick. The glass windows were built on top of that and then the glass roof on top of that. The paneling that appeared to have been white in better times were peeling and stained brown.

The greenhouse was falling apart.

_

"Hm?" Temari raised an eyebrow. "Oh, that old thing. Our mother used to work hard to cultivate all sorts of plants in there."

Temari had a sort of sad, nostalgic gleam enter her eyes. "I guess we sort of forgot about it."

Suzume lowered her gaze.

"What's with the sudden curiosity?" Temari asked, smirking. "You want to get into gardening?"

Suzume shook her head. "I just had an idea."

"An idea?"

Suzume lifted her head to look at her sister and the shinobi was surprised to see solid determination. "Would it be too much trouble if I fixed it up for Gaara-sama to use?"

Temari blinked in surprise, then smiled. "It would be no trouble at all. Except," she grimaced. "It doesn't really belong to us. It belongs to the shinobi headquarters."

Suzume deflated slightly. Temari's mouth pulled into a small smile and she flicked her sister in the forehead. "It's okay. Gaara can't miss what he never had."

_

"Hey," Kankuro's head peered around Temari's door. "Have you seen Suzume?"

Temari shook her head. "I was wondering about that too."

Kankuro frowned. "I'll look around."

_

Suzume was standing in the middle of the crowded hallway, watching nervously while the sand shinobi bustled past. She was trying to call attention to herself but before she could even get a word in edgewise to a certain person, they'd already be gone, yelling about why there were coffee stains on the border report.

"Excuse me-"

"Who was in charge of the West lookout?!" the man bellowed, pushing past Suzume.

Suzume immediately turned to someone else. "Hello, I wanted to ask-"

"No! I don't have extra copy paper, dumbass! Do I look like a stationary shop?!"

"I'm sorry, I-"

"What do you mean you're not done with the report?! It was due a week ago!"

Suzume was about to ask a passing lady when a sharp pain ran through her foot and she fell with a thud on the floor only to have someone land full force on top of her and something hot splash onto her face.

All noise and movement halted as the people observed the scene. Suzume coughed, something bitter in her mouth and finding it hard to breathe, not really processing what had happened.

The man who had fell on her, groaned and picked himself up. He stared down at Suzume's pupil less black eyes, his hands on either side of her face while he was on his knees.

Suzume immediately seized this chance. "Excuse me, I wanted to ask if the ownership of the greenhouse in the back could be transferred to me."

The man finally registered what their positions looked like and jumped onto his feet. The people around them began to mutter under their breath as Suzume sat up.

"What's a little girl like you doing here?" one of the shinobi asked derisively. "A genin?"

Suzume felt like a bunny cornered by hungry wolves, and she clenched her hand, keeping it from shaking. "N-no. I live in the Kazekage headquarters with the former Kazekage's children."

She really wished Temari, Kankuro, or Gaara had been there. She thought she might burst out crying at the scornful gazes that were fixated on her. Ever since she'd been adopted, she'd been dependent on her siblings for protection against those same looks. And now that they weren't there, she was washed in a cold shower of fear after having been dry and warm. She stood there, the hot drink deduced to be coffee, dripping down her face and onto the floor.

Suddenly, a man smiled a sadistic grin. "Oh, I see. You're the one in the rumors. Guess it was true."

He walked up to her and bent down to her level, hands on knees. "The puppy that the monster had picked up to play with."

Suzume was trembling, trying to keep the tears from slipping out. She didn't look away from those cruel eyes in an attempt to appear unafraid. She stammered out a response. "N-none of them a-are mons-monsters. Please take that back."

He seemed mildly surprised. "You mean you don't know?"

The other shinobi were watching. Some were rather amused and others looked disgusted but weren't speaking out. After all, silence and apathy can be more detrimental to society than pure hatred.

The shinobi's appalling smile came back. "I've never met such an innocent and ignorant little brat in my entire life. Maybe that's why you're such a perfect pet for that horrible monster."

"You have no right to call any of them a monster," Suzume felt courage and something like anger boiling inside her, warming her up. "Please take it back."

"Why should I? It's the truth. You're living with a monster, runt."

Suzume's eyes shadowed and she hung her head, something red flashed in her eyes before her shaking stopped entirely. The shinobi leaned in, trying to catch what she had whispered. "What?" he squawked. "You need to speak up, little bitch."

Suzume slowly lifted her head and her pupil less black eyes glared at the man. "If anything, you're the ignorant monster, sir," she said calmly.

"Wha...!" the man was shocked for a fraction of a second before rage at being disrespected by this kid came into gear.

He kicked Suzume in the gut without any remorse, he kicked so hard that Suzume crashed into the opposite wall. She didn't even have time to cry out as her voice caught in her throat when the man smashed his forearm against her neck and held her to the wall.

"I'll teach you a few lessons about respecting your superiors," he hissed. "This is good actually. I wanted a way to get to that monster without risking my life. And this is it."

Suzume was struggling to breathe and she writhed in the shinobi's hold. The tears came then, whether from fear or pain she didn't know. Probably both. She thought she might die then and there. She was frightened about what might come next. To be in the mercy of another was truly terrible. And then, release came.

There was a grunt and Suzume felt herself falling before somebody caught her. Her eyes snapped open to see green eyes peering down at her in worry and she wrapped her arms around Gaara's neck without even thinking.

Gaara was frozen in astonishment at her actions, not used to someone hugging him so tightly. Gaara didn't know if she was crying, but she was shaking horribly. His arms slowly began to move and he returned the hold, trying to comfort her best he could. His eyes slid over to glower at the shinobi that were still hanging around. The redhead's cold gaze landed on the assailant and the man bulleted out of the vicinity and the crowd quickly dispersed.

Gaara eventually led Suzume back over to the private quarters and into the bathroom to clean her up.

Temari and Kankuro materialized, looking around desperately until their eyes found Suzume.

"What happened?! Where have you been?!" Temari paused, a dangerous shadow falling across her expression. "Have you been crying?"

Suzume hung her head.

"I've been questioning her," Gaara said, breaking the silence. "And she refuses to answer my questions."

"What happened, Gaara?" Kankuro asked.

"After receiving your message that Suzume was missing, I was heading home when I heard a commotion down the hall," Gaara scrutinized Suzume again. "And when I reached it, I saw Suzume being pinned to a wall by a shinobi."

There was a moment when all of the siblings' dark aura merged into one horrifying mass of blood thirst.

"Who was this bastard, Suzume?" Kankuro demanded.

"We'll kill him," Temari promised.

Suzume cowered under their gleaming eyes, but still refused to speak.

Temari sighed and turned to the other two. "Can you guys leave? I'm going to speak to our imoto alone."

Kankuro and Gaara obliged and the restroom door closed to give the girls privacy. Temari went over and crouched down in front of Suzume, who was sitting on the toilet seat with the cover down. She looked up at her calmly and took both of her hands in hers.

"Is this because of the greenhouse?"

Suzume didn't respond before nodding a little, averting her sister's eyes.

Temari exhaled through her nostrils and lifted a hand up to examine the treated burn on Suzume's face. Temari scoffed, smirking a little. "You didn't need to get hurt over it, kid."

Suzume pouted a bit.

"Did you want to see Gaara happy that much?"

The brunette nodded.

Temari smiled kindly before sneering and flicking Suzume in the head. "Idiot," she pulled something out of her pocket and presented it to her. The blonde grinned toothily. "Tadah! It's the contract stating that the greenhouse belongs to us now. I got it just now in the mail."

Suzume's eyes broadened and she reached to grab the certificate only to have it fly out of her reach. Temari's pointer finger was on her forehead, keeping her at bay while Suzume's arms flailed around trying to snatch the paper.

"Ah ah ah ah!" Temari said. "Before you bask in the glory of this paper, I want a hug and I want to hear you speak. Mute Suzume is annoying."

Suzume pounced on Temari and hugged her to the point the blond couldn't breathe. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Temari winced and patted Suzume's head. "No problem," she replied in a raspy voice.

Once Suzume let Temari go and she was allowed to hold the paper, Temari turned all seriousness and placed her hands on her sister's shoulders.

"Promise me you won't do anything to get yourself hurt again."

Suzume saw that the blond shinobi had her pinky finger up and ready. She wrapped her own pinky around it and they started bobbing their joined hands up and down.

"Pinky promise, if you lie I will make you swallow a thousand needles! Promise made!" they swung their hands down and their pinkies detached from each other on the last word.

Temari grinned in satisfaction and trapped Suzume in a choke hold, dragging her sister out of the bathroom. "You need to apologize to the boys now. They were worried sick."

"Yes, ma'am," Suzume strained out.

When Suzume looked back, she realizes she shouldn't have made that promise. She really didn't feel like swallowing a thousand needles more than a hundred times.

_

And a few days later, with the help of Kankuro and Temari, Suzume fixed up the greenhouse until it was glistening and alive once more.

"No peeking, Gaara-sama," Suzume warned as she led Gaara into the back.

Since it was early dawn and the sun wasn't at full power, Suzume had no need for an umbrella and was pulling Gaara along freely.

Temari and Kankuro were waiting in front of the greenhouse that was covered in a large sheet to hide it from view. Once the little brunette had her brother where she wanted her, she scampered over to the others and they prepared to take off the sheet.

"Can I open my eyes yet?" Gaara asked.

"Wait a little longer, Gaara," Temari answered.

"Okay," Kankuro grinned. "Now."

Gaara opened his eyes and they just kept widening. The sheet uncovered the greenhouse in its entire majesty and the sun had risen just enough so that the light bounced off the glass in waves.

"What do you think?" Suzume asked, anxious to hear his words.

Gaara gawked at her. "What did I do to deserve this?"

The little girl's face was void of emotion as she said: "I wanted you to be happy."

The redhead didn't know how to take this and Suzume seemed worried. "Don't you like it?"

Gaara nodded, still a bit dazed. "I've never received such a thoughtful gift. This makes me really happy, Suzume."

Suzume's expression relaxed in contentment and dragged Gaara toward the other two. "Kankuro and Temari did most of the work."

The redhead's eyes brightened. "Thank you."

Temari grinned cheekily and Kankuro rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"Anything for you, ototo," Temari wrapped an arm around her littlest brother's shoulders.

Gaara's cheeks flushed in pleasure at both being called 'ototo' and the feel of Temari's hug. He didn't know he could be this happy. Kankuro's hand landed on Gaara's head as he ruffled up the redhead's locks.

"Fill this house with a bunch of green, little bro," Kankuro smiled from ear to ear.

"I intend to," Gaara said.

There was a click and the trio turned to see Suzume lower the camera after having taken a picture. The picture came out from the bottom and Suzume walked over to them while waving it around until the color developed. She handed it to Gaara who lifted it up for the other two to see.

It was a good picture, the scenery was serene and the miniature them looked almost too happy.

"That one's going in the album," Temari decided.

"But shouldn't Suzume be in the picture?" Kankuro said.

"I'm fine, Kankuro-sama," Suzume told him as she picked up a complaining Hisoka. "We don't have anybody else to take it, anyway."

"Too bad cats don't have thumbs, jan," the male brunette mused, scratching the cat behind its ear. "Right, Hisoka?"

Hisoka sneezed in reply.